For hundreds of years, the most popular books in the Western world next to the Bible were "bestiaries," fanciful encyclopedias collecting all of human knowledge and mythology about the animal kingdom. In these pages, eagles and elephants lived next to griffins and sea monsters. Now, in The Big, Bad Book of Beasts, award-winning author Michael Largo has updated the medieval bestsellers for the twenty-first century, illuminating little-known facts, astonishing secrets, and bizarre superstitions about the beasts that inhabit our world—and haunt our imaginations. You'll learn about the biggest bug ever, the smallest animal in the world, and the real creatures that inspired the fabled unicorns. You'll discover how birds learned to fly, why cats rub against your legs, and a thousand other facts that will make you look at nature in a wonderfully new way.

Did you know?

The fastest animal in the world is the peregrine falcon, which reaches speeds of over 200 miles per hours.

Circus ringmaster P.T. Barnum fooled many when he displayed a "mermaid" carcass that was later proved to be monkey bones sewed together with the body of a fish.

Discovered in a remote volcanic crater in New Guinea, the Bosavi wolly rat grows to the size of a cat.

President Andrew Jackson bought an African gray parrot to keep his wife company. The bird outlived them both and was removed from Jackson's funeral for cussing in both English and Spanish.

small ball of it and then continue rolling it around and around in the pile of feces, until the ball grows bigger and bigger—similar to how one would make the base of a snowman. Many roller dung beetles are extremely skilled at fashioning a perfectly round ball out of waste, a technique that allows them to transport their food source back to their nests. No matter where the dung ball is formed, they roll it back home in a nearly straight line, regardless of obstacles or distance, and navigate by

clam, oftentimes correlated to the phases of the moon, and thus starts a chain reaction for other clams in the vicinity to do the same. Male clams then broadcast millions of sperm into the water while females release as many million eggs simultaneously. The clams attempt to catch this mixture and snap shut their shells, repeating this pattern at two-minute intervals for more than three hours. Man-Eaters? It was once believed these giant clams were like underwater Venus flytraps that

return until the halcyon chicks, nesting on some secret coastline, were old enough to fly. “Halcyon days” is a phrase that is still used to describe any unexpected pardon from the daily grind—or a nostalgic longing for the easy, carefree days gone by. * * * Lovebirds The legend of the halcyon grew from tales in Greek mythology about two lovers, Alcyone and Ceyx, who adored each other more than Zeus, thus angering the chief god. Accordingly, Zeus killed Ceyx by sinking his ship with a

habitable. Anglerfish thrive in this nearly sci-fi environment and have been known to live for more than one hundred years. The anglerfish’s lower jaw protrudes and looks similar to a gobbling Pac-Man video icon, though with horrifically sharp and jagged teeth. There are two hundred different species of anglerfish that grow in size from as little as 8 inches to over 3 feet. * * * Relationship Counseling As human couples often do, animals in nature sometimes engage in what are called

Ravens will alert and attract wolves when the birds locate the remains of a large animal in the forest. They lead the wolves to the carcass and then let the canines do the hard work of tearing through the hide. — In the Middle Ages, the raven was associated with witchcraft, and many considered the birds to be people who had been transformed by a curse or alchemy. Some were thought to be demonic tempters, tricking people into foolery. The birds were often seen as harbingers of death or bad luck,